Suleiman the Magnificent

Suleiman the Magnificent (6 November 1494-7 September 1566) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1521 to 1566, succeeding Selim I and preceding Selim II. Also called "Kanuni", meaning "Lawgiver", he led the Ottomans to a golden age in which he took over much of the Balkans and Asia. Suleiman had to fight against his uncle Shehzade Ahmet, who attempted to assassinate him, in 1511 and secured Constantinople for his father during the 1511 Interregnum crisis. Suleiman was a sultan tolerant of people's religions, but became insane later in life and died in 1566 in the siege of Szigethvar.

Biography
The greatest of the Ottoman sultans, Suleiman I inherited from his father, Selim, rule of the Muslim Middle East, which included the recently conquered countries of Syria and Egypt. The new sultan focused on war with the Christian West. He took the Balkan city of Belgrade - the gateway to central Europe - in his first campaign in 1521. The next year, he mounted a siege of Rhodes, the island fortress of the Knights of St. John, that had defied his great-grandfather, Mehmed the Conqueror. Suleiman's willpower and resources accomplished the task, although Rhodes did not fall until midwinter. The surrender of the knights was accepted by the sultan in chivalrous fashion.

Gradual Decline
Having secured the eastern Mediterranean, Suleiman concentrated on further land campaigns in Europe. In 1526, the crushing defeat of a Hungarian army at Mohacs brought him to the border of Austria, the heart of the Christian Holy Roman Empire. Three years later he put the empire's capital, Vienna, under siege, but the city's defenses held. Facing critical supply problems as the weather worsened into fall, Suleiman was forced to withdraw to Constantinople. In the 1530s, the struggle with the Christian world continued at sea as Suleiman's admiral Kheir ed-Din carried the war to Italy and the western Mediterranean. Suleiman was distracted by the challenge of Safavid Iran, leading his army on campaigns to the east and capturing Baghdad in 1534. With the passage of time his health deteriorated. He became reclusive and had two of his sons executed for allegedly plotting against him. Suleiman had long ceased campaigning in person when his forces suffered a humiliating defeat at the siege of Malta in 1565. In response to the catastrophe, the aged sultan, for a last time, accompanied his army into the field. He died in his tent during the siege of Szigethvar in Hungary in 1566.